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Shane Hardy
Shane Hardy Works Published: #A New Reality In Direction #Walk Of Fame In Progress: #Walk Of Fame Finished: #A New Reality In Direction Interview about ANRID John: How did it start? Where did the idea come from? Shane: I was at a crossroads in my life where I really questioned if I was ever going to pursue any of my dreams. I had always wanted to write and have a novel published. I had started to think I wasn’t talented enough to do it anymore. I decided to see if I could write a story about two characters that didn’t really interact on a show and make people love them. I chose Sam and Blaine because they are my favorite characters on glee. J: '''That was a truly inspiring message, and I'd say, you were very successful '''J: '''How did you create this captivating plot? What happened behind the scenes? '''S: I planned on it being a friendship but in the scene where Sam and Santana are watching the twins sing I made the snap decision to make Sam have feelings for Blaine. I’ve always thought they had more in common than other characters. Honestly in decisions I made writing happened organically. Very rarely do I plan out things in advance. Usually just the big plot twists and I figure out how to get there. J: '''Whoa that might have been the greatest snap decision of this decade... '''J: This is more for the writers but, do you think that using all those original gave you a, sort of, freedom to pretty much do whatever you want? S: I definitely think that. I knew I want new original characters to repopulate the glee club and I knew it might alienate readers but I decided to use glee project and vampire diaries (2nd favorite show) actors people would hopefully go with me. I honestly get a huge sense of accomplishment when people tell me their favorite character, after Sam and Blaine, is one o my originals. I’m really proud of that. J: '''You should be! You got me into original characters! '''J: The tour? Where did it come from? What was his purpose? S: I wanted to use it to develop the plot and lead to ch. 39 with everyone on stage. Having them all in hotels and a bus together advanced all the plotlinesarefun for all the characters. I also needed to get the readers that New Directions 2.0 could be better than the crew we knew from the show. J: '''Something Ryan Murphy didn't manage to do... '''S: '''I don’t think it’s just Ryan Murphy. I think they just got to the point where there were too many writers to keep the story consistent. '''J: Another for the fellow writers, how did you get past the middle? Many people have this problem, where the actions slows down and the writer becomes uninterested in the story, how did you get past that? S: '''If you go back and look ANRID is written in ten chapter increments. I knew where we would be at the end and I created obstacles each 10 chapters for the characters to overcome. Honestly, having the multiple stories outside of BLAM really helped. If I wasn’t sure what to do I’d concentrate on other characters for a chapter and then I’d magically figure out to do with BLAM next. That’s how it never got boring for me. '''J: The sequel? Was it always there? When did you realize that it would need a sequel? S: I realized there was going to be a sequel the first time I took them back to New York and Sam, Blaine, and Sebastian were all in Cooper’s apartment. People reacted so positively that I knew I wanted to show after high school. I didn’t know it as the WALK OF FAME story until nationals when I knew exactly where I would take it. J: How do you keep up with so many OC characters? S: Sometimes I don’t give them the attention they deserve but honestly I don’t think about it. I just let the writing happen naturally and when you let that happen it just happens. J: '''I know you answered this on tumblr but, how did your life experience affect your writing? '''S: I never set out to use any of my life in the story but the story definitely has moments from my life. I never made the connections until after I wrote the sections. I found my soul mate. I lost him. I’m starting over. That will be seen through several relationships. When I was outed I lost my family. That was definitely reflected in Sam’s storyline. There are several relationships in the story I wish I had. Will/Sam - my dad died before he knew about me. Don’t think he would be accepting but in my fantasy world Will’s reaction is what I hoped would happen Sam/Blaine - I’ve had that. I know how amazing it is to have and to lose Sam/Sebastian - I wish I had the best friend/brother in real life to confide in. J: '''I think that's just going to make your readers love you even more. '''J: Favorite love scene? S: Okay, this one is easy. It’s the Blam Prom Scene in front of the fireplace. While that is a very “sexy” scene for most to me writing it was all about their love for each other and that is what I was trying to portray. J: Favorite sex scene? S: My personal guilty pleasure would be the answer. I think my favorite (and probably the best) is the Sam-Blaine-Sebastian threeway from Spring Break. It provided for something that a lot of readers wanted to see and it was something I think had to happen. Sebastian had to get it out of his system so he could actually be a better friend to both of them. J: Favorite performance? S: Do you know how hard it is to pick one. I really want to go straight to one of the competition performances because of how hard I worked on writing them, but I think I have to go with the Nationals chapter and the Seniors (Sam, Blaine, Tina, Jeff, Nick) singing The Climb by Miley Cyrus as they lead New Directions into the competition. J: '''Because it felt like a closure? Like that chapter of their lives was over... '''S: Yeah that performance I think for readers is the first time you realize that this story is coming to an end and something new is about to start. J: Favorite city? S: I assume you mean from the tour. My favorite city to write was Chicago because so much happened there that was so incredibly important to the plot, some of which you wouldn’t know until much later. J: Favorite romantic scene? B: Can I give you one for each of the main couples? Nickbastian: the Ferris Wheel on the second trip to Chicago. Blichael: the park scene where they confess their feelings for each other. BLAM: how do you pick just one … but if I have too I think it has to be Sam’s ultimate act of love, the t-shirt speech where he confesses his love for Blaine to the entire world. J: Favorite OC characters? S: That’s like asking a mom “who is your favorite child?” Well, I don’t consider Blake an OC. He’s Ryder with a different name. I love all of my OC’s but I think I’ve said this before the one that has stolen my heart more than any of the others is Lindsey Black. I absolutely love writing her character. J: And we love Lindsey! J: Favorite chapters? S: That’s tough. I’ll give you a few for different reasons 13 - Three Pissed Off Divas: Set up so much story, a lot of humor, and most importantly established who Sebastian would be in my world. Hopefully readers saw that he was more caring in how he took care of Sam after the tornado. That all-important brother bond formed in this chapter. 31-33 The Los Angeles Chapters: these were so important to the plot of the story. So much set up there for nearly every character. 40 - Going Home: Kurt’s Funeral, total turning point in the story. 51-51, A Glimpse into the Future AND Secrets and Lies, sets up the idea of Walk of Fame 60 - Choices: Probably the chapter I’m most proud of, all Taylor Swift music, Brittany’s death. Every single character changed. 67 - Nationals Part Two: Everything worked up to this point. 70 - A New Beginning: Obvious reasons, huge moment as a writer to finish a story and be happy with how it ended. J: Favorite Authors? S: As in what I read that’s published or fan-fiction? I’ll give you both. published my three idols are C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, and J.K. Rowling. As for fan-fiction: I love the way UConnHusky writes (especially the story he wrote specifically for me) I love your story Flames of Love, Samfan23’s Acceptance is one of my all-time favorites. Also love ImperVerd, SageK, lokifirefox, and liz-loz’s The Odds. J: I have to agree with you on all those authors! And shut up about Acceptance that was wicked! But so good. And thank you. Hardest scene to write? Why? The opening to the Funeral in 40. I re-wrote it 4 times and then I found that song and it fit perfectly and I turned it into a song montage. J: '''Funniest thing that happened while writing ANRID? '''S: While writing ANRID??? I don’t know if this constitutes as funny but it happened all the time and I thought it to be humorous. Throughout the entire time I was writing people would send me requests for sex scene pairings. They’d give me two (or more) names and just ask me to write sex scenes using those character and put it in the story. Never got used to those. J: '''Well, now we have a way to embarrass you! '''J: Did you ever imagine that ANRID would become this? S: I didn’t think anyone else would read it. I didn’t think anyone else shipped BLAM at all. Then all of a sudden Season 4 happened and they became best friends and word of mouth from one reader to another happened and it just exploded in popularity. I honestly still can’t believe it. I am so thankful for every single reader. It means so much to me. J: '''The readers just want quality and ANRID has lots of it. What you did with ANRID was something that had never been done... '''J: Did you always want to write?How did you became interested in writing? S: '''I’m an actor/director by trade. It’s what I love to do, but I’ve had a passion for writing my entire life. I started writing lyrics and poems in middle school. Wrote my first book in college (unpublished of course) and got really busy and stopped writing. I didn’t feel right not doing it so I wrote ANRID to test the waters and see if I still had what it took to be a writer. '''J: '''I'd say, you have what it takes... '''J: If there is one thing you could change in ANRID, what would it be? S: Tina breaking up with Tyler would have been a much bigger deal. He really got off easy with that and that’s so out of character for Tina. I would fix that definitely. J: Writer's block, how did you get over it? S: '''I just put it down for a few days. Play video games, sleep. Usually one of those three always did the trick. '''J: The thing that you love the most in writing? S: The ability to create the world I wish really existed. That’s what I love the most. J: Any, non-fanfic projects you're working on? You mentioned a side-project on tumblr... S: '''Well yes I’ve been acting all summer and now I’m running and after school theatre program for high school students.But I am writing a novel that I am going to try and get it published within the next year. '''J: '''Can we get some more details, about this novel? '''S: Not yet :) I’m not ready to give that away yet, but I’ll tell you this. It’s a series and it’s in the same genre as my three favorite authors. J: '''Damnit! Well, you got me, fantasy is my favorite! Can't wait to read it and don't forget to just go crazy about it on tumblr. '''S: '''Hopefully I’ll just come on and read people coming up with crazy fan fic and theories about a whole new set of characters that I’m creating. '''J: Why did you start to write? S: '''I don’t remember a day in my life where I didn’t want to be a writer. It’s just part of who I am. I can’t imagine life without writing. '''J: '''Now we have questions from the fans. '''Question: How do you come up with the stories for the secondary characters? And how did you decided to focus not only on Sam and Blaine? S: I would disagree that the focus wasn’t on Sam and Blaine. All the secondary stories affected their relationship somehow. Go back and read for yourself. Either it was a direct relationship or it indirectly told us about something they gave insight into BLAM. The story lines happened organically. As I needed characters to push the main storyline I just decided which character would do it best. Some characters became much bigger than I expected while others I didn’t use as often as I would have liked. Q: What was your favorite story arc to write in ANRID? S: Probably the tour. Every character had a moment of self-discovery. I feel like that’s why everyone bought into the original characters as much as they did because you got to watch their challenges right away. I knew where it was going and the death that would happen at the end, but no one else did. I loved reading the reactions as we got there. Q: Tour importance? S:' '''The tour wasn’t that important. It wasn’t about the tour, but I wanted to do it that way so that the characters had a level of privacy that didn’t involve parents. Plus I got the chance to use different locations during each chapter which I found interesting. '''Q: '''Why Britt Why? '''S:' It had to be someone that would bond everyone and remind them why they were so important to each other. I knew I was going for a sequel in NYC at that point, but I needed a reason for them to come together instead of it still being separate story lines. Q: Nice Sebastian? S: Sam needed to see that people can change because he was hiding something no one knew about. People have questioned their relationship a lot but ultimately each had what the other needed. In Sam, Sebastian got family and trust. In Sebastian, Sam got permission to be himself and a best friend. That’s what I wanted for Sam and Sebastian needed to change for that to happen (plus it is canon that Sebastian was already trying to be a better person and I think he ultimately always was). Category:Shane Hardy Category:Author Category:The Bible Category:ANRID Category:A New Reality In Direction Category:Blam